Until I was back in the SE, and in the market for some chicken (click to enlarge to see Paula in all her glory):

I confess, I considered buying the low end chicken instead -- the kind where they feed them to one another and shoot them full of Tetracycline, rather than walk out of the supermarket having purchased something w/ Deen's face on it. (Given my day job, buying groceries is always a small town adventure, but that's another story.)

If we take as a postulate here that there is some meaningful difference between Tyson chicken and Springer Mt. chicken, my reaction was more legitimately snobby and, you know, elitist, than what Bruni calls Bourdain out for. The Cod is no Cayce Pollard, what with her brand allergies, but is Deen-averse enough that this was a struggle -- the association with Smithfield is bad, her characatures of Southern foodways worse. Until Bruni's comment, or maybe the dawning of the age of Palinaquarius, it would not have occurred to me to feel bad about preferring things that are good to things that are not as good. I think Sean Brock and Hugh Acheson, to name two, do a better job representing the culinary possiblities of my adopted region than Deen does. It ain't all qunioa and sprouts with them, but they seem concerned about the impact of their food on both its sources and recipients. Is it bad to think that's better than deep frying butter on the Food Network?

1970, the Patriots selected Foxborough Stadium as the team a new home. In March 1971, the team officially changed its name to the New England Patriots to win the Boston area around the New England fans support.